It's about the supression, stupid!

[boutons_deux]

How a Utah County Silenced Native American Voters -- and How Navajos Are Fighting Back

Sixteen years ago, when Jones joined the board of the Utah Navajo Health System, he realized his neighbors were dying because the closest ambulances -- the county's, in Blanding, and the tribe's, in Kayenta, Arizona -- were an hour away "on a good day." So Jones asked the county commission if one of San Juan's ambulances could be housed in a garage in Montezuma Creek. From there, it would take half the time to rush an elder suffering a heart attack to medical care.

But the county wasn't interested. Over the next decade, Jones says, he and other health advocates repeatedly tried to get the commission to improve ambulance service on the reservation. But while the sole Navajo commissioner was supportive, the two white commissioners were usually not.

many Navajo requests -- from building schools to implementing bicultural education to improving roads -- have been denied by Anglo residents, who have always held a majority in elected offices despite comprising less than half of the county's population.

U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Shelby ruled that San Juan County violated both the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Cons ution by relying on race to draw the boundaries of its voting districts. By engaging in "racial gerrymandering," San Juan County systematically diluted the strength of the Native vote, keeping Natives out of power and skewing the makeup of the county commission and the school board. The system, perpetuated for decades, "offends basic democratic principles,"

In 1957, Utah became one of the last states in the nation to grant Native Americans the right to vote, doing so only after being forced by a federal judge.

the way the county drew its lines still violated the Voting Rights Act, because it packed minority voters into a single district while spreading the white vote over multiple districts. That meant Native voters could only elect one representative of their choice while white voters got two, even as the Native population surpassed the white population, 52 to 46 percent.

as recently as 1995, the county denied that it was responsible for educating Navajo children;

Requests to bring running water or electricity to the Navajo community of Wes er were denied in 2007, because, one county commissioner argued, residents were too poor to pay for utilities anyway.

"The struggles, the racism we all read about in history books … I'd like to believe that the overtness of what happened then isn't happening today," he says. "But in some places, it is."

Under both the Voting Rights Act and Utah state law, counties must redraw voting districts at least every 10 years to ensure that the population is spread evenly across districts. But San Juan County hadn't redrawn its voting districts since 1986.

Judge Shelby ruled unequivocally in the Navajos' favor. He ordered the county to remap both its school board and county commission voting districts. Commissioner Adams says the county is complying.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/3...-fighting-back

[boutons_deux]

Republican states still flouting judges' orders

voter suppression is the ongoing refusal of a few states to abide by court orders regarding voting procedures. Meteor Blades:

In Texas, some election officials still haven't gotten it through their heads that they must comply with court orders regarding voting procedure. They are still posting or passing out bad information about what kind of identification is needed to be able to cast a ballot—and it's confusing many Texans. […]Confusion is one of the most effective weapons in the suppressors' arsenal. One outcome: An unknown but possibly quite large number of citizens who believe they must have the mandated ID will simply choose not to vote at all.

In Wisconsin, which also has a very strict voter ID law, the federal courts ruled that the state's restrictions went too far and that it should quickly provide a for-voting-only ID. Quickly did not happen, and other obstacles arose.
Some would-be voters seeking one of the new IDs have been told by election officials that they would need an original copy of their birth certificate. But that's not true. Despite court orders, the officials continue to pass out bits of bad information.

In Texas, they're not just refusing to take down old signage with incorrect information. They're actively lying to voters:

But attorney Matt Williams says he saw something different when he went to vote in Dripping Springs, near Austin."Almost immediately upon arriving and getting in line," he says, "one of the poll workers started kind of intercepting the people walking out of the parking lot yelling, 'You have to have a valid photo ID to vote today.'

And she continued, probably for the next half hour, her and one other lady would walk up and down the line, and they would yell that same information."

Williams says several people in line protested, calling attention to the recent court ruling. They even pointed out the language on posters in the polling station explaining the new rules. Williams says the poll workers ignored them. "If I hadn't had a valid ID, I would have walked away thinking I could not vote."

• Oh, hey. Look. Voter fraud in Iowa. "Terri Lynn Rote […] a registered Republican, reportedly cast an early voting ballot at the Polk County Election Office, 120 Second Ave., and another ballot at a county satellite voting location in Des Moines, according to a Des Moines police report." Yep. A Trump supporter voting twice. Wonder where she got the idea to try that? By the way, she got caught. Because the system is not rigged.
• Another Trump supporter in Texas was arrested for electioneering in a polling place. He went their wearing his "Basket of Deplorables" T-shirt and Trump hat. Because that's what Trump voters do.
• Voter intimidation comes even to Idaho. You'd think that Republicans have such a lock on this state that it isn't necessary, but one Republican legislator—Rep. Heather Scott (who is also a big booster of the Bundy clan) has turned her goonsout against her opponent. The Idaho Democratic Party has requested the U.S. Attorney investigate after local law enforcement blew off complaints.
• Pennsylvania Republicans have requested "an injunction ordering the state to allow poll watchers to work in counties other than where they live." A recipe for disaster in a state where Donald Trump has been trying to incite his followers to "poll watch" in Philadelphia, where "those" people vote. Secretary of State Pedro Cortes has urged a federal judge to reject that request, saying the GOP has not proven a lack of poll watchers.
• The DNC filed a motion this week calling on a federal judge to hold the Republican National Committee in contempt for violating a long-standing consent decree barring it from intimidating voters at the polls. See the bullet point directly above. The RNC has been under the decree since 1981, and just can't stop suppressing voters long enough to get out from under it.
• Nevada is still refusing to open polling sites on reservations, even after "federal district Judge Miranda Du ordered the state of Nevada to provide early voting and Election Day polling sites on the reservations of two of the state's Indian tribes." There are nine other tribes who have requested polling sites.
• Republicans in Wisconsin are once again making their suppression intentionclear, this time in the form of an email in which a Green Bay clerk doesn't want to open up an early voting location at a university. Because "I have heard it said that students lean more toward the democrats." Sic.
• Still in Wisconsin, absentee voters take note—the state has quietly moved up the deadline for receiving ballots. They now have to be received by 8:00 pm on Election Day, not just post-marked before then. This means they have to be sent by Tuesday of next week.
• North Carolina Republicans are once again in the news, this week for voter caging—a tactic to force voters—predominantly people of color who vote for Democrats—off the rolls by sending mailers to bad addresses. When the mailer is returned as undeliverable, that voter's registration is challenged. They picked on 100-year-old Grace Bell Hardison this time around. Which was a mistake. She went to the local media and shamed the Republicans into dropping their complaint. North Carolina voters? If your registration is challenged, call the press.
• Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted has until 10 AM Monday morning to file a response with the U.S. Supreme Court to a request for an emergency stay on two laws tightening the rules for absentee and provisional voters. These provisions require "Ohioans to accurately complete five fields of information on requests for absentee or provisional ballots. If a mistake is made, the ballot is thrown out even if elections officials can identify the voter."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/10/29/1588057/-This-week-in-the-war-on-voting-Republican-states-still-flouting-judges-orders?detail=email&link_id=15&can_id=4217e8eb109c 68bd0c2e4143dd2d8c15&source=email-why-fbi-director-james-comey-did-the-wrong-thing-again&email_referrer=why-fbi-director-james-comey-did-the-wrong-thing-again&email_subject=why-fbi-director-james-comey-did-the-wrong-thing-again

Repug gerrymandering and voter suppression RIGS the election 1000x more than in-person voter fraud.

[boutons_deux]

Repugs workin hard to screw non-Repugs

(Extreme right-wing, activist, VRWC shooges) Supreme Court ensures thousands of Ohio ballots will be thrown out for small errors

The last hope for a lawsuit brought by a coalition of Ohio voters experiencing homelessness died at the U.S. Supreme Court this week, leaving the state’s policy of throwing away provisional ballots with small errors in place for the 2016 election.

Now, voters who forget to include their middle name or zip code, make a typo on their birth date, or sign their name in cursive in the “print name” box could have their ballot tossed.

https://thinkprogress.org/supreme-co...c5f#.5ln3bl9h1

[boutons_deux]

here's how slave state GA intimidates their knitters, esp female knitters

Something stinks in Coffee County, Georgia, as activist grandmother is prosecuted for voter fraud

Olivia Pearson, a 55-year-old African American in Coffee County. She believes in the power of the vote to change things. And she’s spent a lot of time trying to nudge, cajole, arm-twist, and otherwise get her fellow African Americans, including members of her own family, to register and get to the polls, often ferrying them there herself. One of those was her nephew. Hoping to instill in him a favorable lifelong at ude regarding the importance of voting, she persuaded him to cast his first vote ever in 2012 for Barack Obama.

But now, years after that election, she’s one of five people being prosecuted for alleged voter fraud. The state is claiming she crossed the line and gave her nephew and others more assistance in voting than the law allows and signed an affidavit falsely stating the assistance was needed. She denies this. Because of the impending trial, Pearson can’t talk about the specifics. But she says she only showed her nephew—and over the years, dozens of other voters—how to use the voting machines, but never touched them herself, nor told anyone who they should cast their votes for while assisting them.

Joel Anderson reports on how this former parole officer, civil rights activist, and grandmother could become a felon serving a five-year term if convicted:

Her prosecution is one skirmish in the intense and increasingly bitter nationwide struggle between Democrats’ efforts to mobilize voters — especially people of color — and Republicans’ attempts to crack down on what they say is voter fraud in an election that Trump has repeatedly claimed is “rigged.”

Her case comes amid the pitched electoral battle for the state of Georgia, long a rock-solid Republican bastion where polls show Donald Trump holds only a slim lead over Hillary Clinton. Republican officials in Georgia have encouraged ordinary citizens to lodge voter-fraud complaints through, for example, a dedicated website. Prosecutions remain rare but, critics charge, can send a message so chilling it suppresses voter turnout.

That, they say, is what is happening here in Douglas, the charming but economically ailing seat of Coffee County. The black vote has surged here over the last two decades. Less than half the county’s black registered voters actually cast ballots in the 1996 election between Bob Dole and Bill Clinton. In 2012, almost three quarters did, helping a Democratic candidate for sheriff topple the in bent Republican, a lightning bolt in this deep-red county in a Deep South state.

Pearson’s organizing for that successful black candidate for sheriff—Doyle Wooten—may well be the key reason she’s been targeted for prosecution.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/1...h-a-tweetstorm

[boutons_deux]

Judge: North Carolina’s voter purge process is “insane,” calls back to Jim Crow era


“This sounds like something that was put together in 1901.”

A federal judge on Wednesday described North Carolina’s process for purging voters off the rolls “insane.” She argued it “sounds like something that was put together in 1901” — a time when black voters were deliberately suppressed on a massive scale — due to how few safeguards were in place to stop almost anyone from essentially stripping another person’s ability to vote.

The process is shockingly simple:

Any voter can challenge another county resident’s registration,

which then leads to a formal hearing in which the challenger presents evidence that the registration is invalid.

If local officials conclude there’s enough for probable cause, a challenged voter can be called to a hearing.

But if challenged voters don’t turn up, they’re automatically stripped from the rolls.

Obviously, this can have a disproportionate impact on poor, minority voters who just don’t have the time or the means to get to a hearing.

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politi...na-voter-purge

America is ed and un able, and it's the Repugs pushing America down the drain.

[boutons_deux]

There Are 868 Fewer Places to Vote in 2016 Because the Supreme Court Gutted the Voting Rights Act

Nearly half of counties that previously approved voting changes with the federal government have cut polling places this election.

The Leadership Conference for Civil Rights surveyed 381 of the 800 counties previously covered by Section 5 where polling place information was available in 2012 or 2014 and found there are 868 fewer places to cast a ballot in 2016 in these areas.

“Out of the 381 counties in our study, 165 of them—43 percent—have reduced voting locations,” says the important new report.



https://www.thenation.com/article/th...ng-rights-act/

Slave/red states love knitters and s.

Other states that have ed over citizens' right to vote are Ohio and Indiana.

[DarrinS]

[boutons_deux]

Court Blocks Kobach's Scheme For Proof-Of-Citizenship In Kansas Elections

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/court-knocks-kobach-in-case-linked-to-ks-proof-of-citizenship-voter-requirement?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed& utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

[spurraider21]

crofl anectodal evidence by cherry picking by only talking to folks in a metropolitan area

its not a question of "lol black people are poor"... it's that the data shows there is a disparate impact, or that minorities are disproportionately effected even though the law at face value isn't discriminatory

[angrydude]

crofl anectodal evidence by cherry picking by only talking to folks in a metropolitan area

its not a question of "lol black people are poor"... it's that the data shows there is a disparate impact, or that minorities are disproportionately effected even though the law at face value isn't discriminatory

So blacks are too stupid to vote so we need to help them? Because that's what you're saying.

[spurraider21]

So blacks are too stupid to vote so we need to help them? Because that's what you're saying.

yes. because in the post you quoted, i was calling blacks stupid

[boutons_deux]

just like in 2000, slave state news

VOTER DISENFRANCHISEMENT IN FLORIDA COULD SKEW SWING STATE’S OUTCOME

The Sunshine State, which once again might decide the winner of a presidential election, is home to nearly 1.7 million current and former felons — the vast majority of whom will have no say in who will lead the country in the next four years.

47 other states allow people to vote after they’ve served their time.

http://whowhatwhy.org/2016/11/05/vot...tates-outcome/

[boutons_deux]

Arizona may enforce ballot collection law: Supreme Court order

The U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday ordered an Arizona state law that restricts the collection of ballots by third parties back in place for Tuesday's election, a victory for Republicans in an intensifying state-by-state legal battle over access to voting.

The Supreme Court granted a stay of a U.S. appeals court ruling that on Friday had temporarily blocked Arizona from enforcing the law that prohibits advocacy groups from collecting completed early ballots from voters and delivering them to election offices as part of get-out-the-vote efforts.

The stay will remain in effect pending a final disposition of the appeal by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court order said. The appeals court has scheduled oral arguments in the case for January.

Polls have shown Republican Donald Trump with a small lead in Arizona over Democrat Hillary Clinton in the presidential race.
Democrats have accused Republicans of enacting state laws intended to make it harder for minorities and others who tend to back Democratic candidates to cast ballots. Republicans have called these laws necessary to guard against voting fraud.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-us...e=domesticNews

AZ, just another nasty, Cons ution-loving, democracy-loving Repug state.

[boutons_deux]

‘We are not ready’: Arizona voters warn Election Day could be worse than primary fiasco

Phoenix heads into Election Day with last-minute law changes, misinformation, long lines, and threats of intimidation.

On Arizona’s primary day this April, voters in Maricopa County waited five hours in the hot sun to cast a ballot, because the county slashed the number of polling places from 200 to 60. Some people gave up and left without voting; some fainted in the desert heat. Polling places ran out of ballots.

After the dust settled, angry voters, candidates, and political parties filed a slew of lawsuits against the state, leading to court settlements and a promisethat no voter will have to wait longer than half an hour this fall.

“The primary fiasco was a huge wakeup call,” said Samantha Pstross with the Arizona Advocacy Network.

But elected officials and voting rights advocates fear the situation could be just as bad or worse on Tuesday.

“We are not ready for what I presume will be one of the largest turnouts in Arizona history,” Maricopa County supervisor Steve Gallardo told ThinkProgress. “Everyone is banking on a large number of vote-by-mail ballots. But this is not an ordinary election.

We have a record number of new Latino voters. We see lots of excitement out there. We need to be prepared to handle this, but we’re already seeing problems.”

Gallardo cited troubles that have already plagued the county during early voting, when turnout is usually much lighter than on Election Day itself.

On Friday, the final day of in-person early voting, voters in Tempe waited more than three hours to cast a ballot. Among them was Bob Davis, who arrived around 1:15 p.m. with his four-year-old daughter. Though he was told it would be a two-hour wait, he didn’t cast a ballot until nearly 5 p.m.

“I watched like 20 people leave the line who couldn’t wait,” he told ThinkProgress. “I knew the chance of them coming back and trying again was negligible. I felt really upset.”

Davis noted that there is a ballot measure before Arizona voters this year that would raise the minimum wage from just over 8 dollars an hour to 12 by the year 2020. He said he worries those the measure would impact most will not be able to have a say in its passage.

“If you make only 8.05 an hour, your ability to stand in line for four hours is minimal,” he said. “This is actual voter suppression.”

https://thinkprogress.org/we-are-not...b94#.uqj7pcvcz[/COLOR]

[boutons_deux]

Kockistan news

Wisconsin breaks early voting records, GOP wants to interfere.

Over 685,000 early votes have been cast in Wisconsin! This is 20,000 more than the 2012 election, and 38,000 more than in 2008.

Robin Voss, Republican head of the state assembly, is not pleased. His beef seems to be that the rules are not uniform across the state, and therefore early voting must be restricted (apparently especially in Milwaukee) to make sure everybody has the same chance to vote.

This would be fine, if it meant that everyone would have expanded early voting, but it is unlikely that is the case.

In July,

an earlier attempt to make voting access ‘more uniform’ was struck down by Judge James Peterson, who stated that the changes were specifically aimed at preventing African Americans from voting.

He also ordered a follow-up investigation on whether local DMVs were following the correct procedures in issuing the ID that voters required.

Of course, Robin “Poutypants” Vos can’t let this go without looking into whether the state can challenge Peterson’s ruling.

"It shouldn't be up to an unelected judge to have the final say."

(sure, he means like the Repug-packed, VRWC-hired SCOTWI, which killed an investigation of the governor.

Senator Jon Erpenbach (D) agrees that it is just another attempt to suppress voting.

"Republicans don't want early voting because they suck at early voting," Erpenbach said.

"It's not an advantage (for Democrats); it's the law.

And when things don't go the way Republicans want, they change the law."

http://m.dailykos.com/story/2016/11/...from-the-media

[boutons_deux]

the Repugs to

There are 4,000 people in a half-mile voting line in Cincinnati today.

http://www.vox.com/presidential-elec...-this-isn-t-ok

Saahil Desai @Saahil_Desai

This is what happens when there's only one place to early vote in a county of 800,000+



the Repug bas s to

[Winehole23]

Shame on the GOP for making it harder to vote. Very shortsighted -- voters have long memories.

[Winehole23]

rigged!

https://theintercept.com/2016/11/06/...-donald-trump/

[DarrinS]

rigged!

https://theintercept.com/2016/11/06/...-donald-trump/

^hey boutons -- here's another good source for your copy/paste pieces

[Winehole23]

you've copied and pasted from the Intercept when they slam HRC

[boutons_deux]

^hey boutons -- here's another good source for your copy/paste pieces

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0bMfS-_pjM

Systematic ups don't excuse nor hide Repugs' targeted suppression of blacks, browns.

America is incapable of change, renewal, fixing problems.

Pennies? no $1 or $5 coins? G M A F B

workday voting? G M A F B

etc, etc.

Do you really want the Fed members to be elected? G M A F B We already have elected judges, compromised from day one on the bench.

[boutons_deux]

Over Half of Voter Intimidation Complaints Today Are Coming From Pennsylvania

According to NBC News, many voters in the Philadelphia area are being asked for ID in spite of the fact that it is not needed to vote in the state.

A voter told NBC that their poll worker must not have been trained very well, but others see this as a sign of voter intimidation.

Politics USA pointed out that “Pennsylvania state law does require identification for new voters or voters voting in a new location, but a driver’s license or photo ID is not required.”

http://www.mediaite.com/online/repor...-pennsylvania/

[boutons_deux]

LePage Says He'll Investigate Maine College Students' Votes For Fraud


Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) said Monday he plans to investigate college students voting in his state to ensure they follow the law.

“Casting ballots in two different states is voter fraud, which is why Maine law requires anyone voting here to establish residency here,”

The fliers said students would need a Maine driver’s license to vote. In fact, enrolled students can vote without a state ID, according to Maine’s Democratic Secretary of State Matt Dunlap.

Maine state law simply requires proof of residence, which can be satisfied for first-time voters registered in the state with do ents including paychecks or utility bills.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/paul-lepage-investigate-student-voter-fraud?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_ca mpaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

[boutons_deux]

Michigan man singled out Muslim women in hijabs for voter intimidation




A Michigan man attempted to block two women wearing hijabs from entering their polling place Tuesday morning, prompting Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum to call the interaction an act of voter intimidation.

In an email to Mother Jones, voter Ron Fox—who witnessed the scene—said a man outside of the polling place pulled two women out of line to examine their voter registration cards and appeared to be directing them to another poling location.

, there were two polling officials that were asking him to leave,” Fox wrote. “He was refusing. He then entered the polling place, presumably to attempt to obtain permission to remain.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/11/mich...e+Raw+Story%29

[boutons_deux]

in Florida,

under state law, virtually any other voter in your county can challenge your right to vote.

In Florida, if someone believes a fellow resident is ineligible to vote, he or she can force that person to cast a provisional ballot.

All one has to do is issue a challenge in writing and sign an oath.

The challenger doesn’t even have to provide evidence for the challenge.

The burden then is on the challenged voter to prove his or her eligibility by providing written do entation within 48 hours after the election to ensure the vote is counted.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/fellow-c...threaten-vote/